India deferred a plan to clamp down on tax avoidance by a year after the proposals stoked concern that foreign investment will decline and hurt growth in Asia
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WASHINGTON
Treasury 10-year yields are poised to fall for the fifth straight week, the longest stretch since June, amid speculation the European sovereign-debt crisis is far from resolved.
The yield on the 10-year note traded below 2 percent for a sixth straight day even as governments committed more than $430 billion in fresh money to the International Monetary Fund to help it protect the world economy against turmoil in Europe. The Federal Reserve sold $8.63 billion in notes as part of its program known as Operation Twist.
Royal Dutch Shell says it is confident a 10-mile oil sheen spotted in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast didn’t originate from its operations in the area.
In a statement Thursday, the company says it found no sign of leaks and ruled out any well-control issues associated with its operations. The sheen was spotted late Wednesday.
A Coast Guard helicopter with a pollution officer on board was heading out Thursday morning to the site, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, in an effort to determine the source of the oil.
Shell estimates the sheen at six barrels of oil, or about 252 gallons. The company sent a response ship to skim the area as a precaution.
The company has two production platforms in the area, called Mars and Ursa.
Shares in Royal Dutch Shell PLC fell in European trading early Thursday after the sheen was reported. After New York trading opened, Shell’s U.S. shares were up 32 cents at $68.07.
Early reports could not determine whether oil was continuing to flow at the site near the Shell platforms.
The Mars and Ursa fields are producing oil and natural gas from huge tension-leg production platforms. The Mars platform is in 2,900 feet of water while Ursa is in 4,000 feet of water.
Shell operates six major offshore facilities, 13 crewed platforms and numerous subsea systems in the Gulf.
The sheen was reported in an area about 50 miles from the site of BP’s Macondo well, which blew out in April 2010 and created the nation’s worst offshore oil disaster. The now-plugged Macondo well is in about 5,000 feet of water.
Sheens spread quickly as oil breaks down and a small amount can cover a large area. Earlier this week, a tanker in the Mississippi River south of New Orleans spilled an estimated 50 gallons of oil. The sheen from the discharge extended almost 30 miles downriver.
Other possible sources, aside from oilfield equipment, could include natural seepage from the Gulf bottom and fuel discharged by passing ships headed into or out of the Mississippi River.
A cruise ship with 1,000 people on board that had drifted for 24 hours after being disabled by a fire was headed toward Malaysia following repairs and was expected to reach shore Sunday, the ship’s company said.
The Azamara Quest, which had embarked on a 17-day Southeast Asian cruise, was left drifting in southern Philippine waters after a fire broke out Friday night. The flames engulfed one of the ship’s engine rooms but were quickly extinguished, the ship’s operator said. Five crew members suffered smoke inhalation, including one who was seriously injured and needed hospital care.
The ship informed the Philippine coast guard late Saturday that its power and propulsion had been restored and that it was moving slowly toward Sandakan, Malaysia, its next destination after it left Manila on Thursday, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Algier Ricafrente said.
Azamara Club Cruises, the ship’s operator, said in a statement Sunday that the ship was sailing at a top speed of only 6 knots (11 kilometers or 6.9 miles per hour) and was expected to reach Sandakan at 10 p.m. (1400 GMT).
“Unfortunately, the ship has not been able to restore power to the air conditioning compressors. While this is a very difficult undertaking, the onboard team is diligently working to resolve this issue. The guest sentiment onboard continues to be calm and upbeat,” the statement said.
It said company president Larry Pimentel would meet personally with the passengers and crew in Sandakan.
The company said the rest of the cruise would be canceled. It said it would fully refund the passengers and provide each guest with a future cruise certificate for the amount paid for the aborted voyage.
It was the latest in a series of accidents hitting luxury cruise liners since January, when the Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.
The Azamara Quest is carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew members. Operator Azamara Club Cruises is part of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
More than one third, or 201, of the passengers on board are American, and nearly a third, or 119, of the crew are Filipinos, according to lists of passenger and crew nationalities provided by the ship captain to the coast guard.
The passengers are from 25 countries and include 98 from Britain, 89 from Australia, 45 from Canada, 39 from Germany, 32 from Austria, 16 from Belgium, 14 from New Zealand and 14 from Switzerland.
The other crew members include 58 Indians and 50 Indonesians cash advance.
The vessel had left Hong Kong on Monday. The ship made a port call in Manila and left for Sandakan on Thursday. It was scheduled to make several stops in Indonesia before arriving in Singapore on April 12.
But instead, the stricken ship drifted Saturday in the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometers (70 nautical miles) south of the Philippines’ Tubbataha Reef, Ricafrente said. The area lies between the Philippines and the island of Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia and Indonesia.
A woman from Kailua-Kuna, Hawaii, who said she is one of the passengers, posted an entry on Azamara’s Facebook page after Internet service was restored on the ship, praising the crew’s handling of the situation.
“No A/C yet but everyone is fine,” she wrote. “Cannot say enough about this Captain and the crew. They have been absolutely wonderful keeping us updated constantly with the good or the bad. … Sorry that we cannot finish our cruise, but we will back ASAP.”
She said the crew worked with very little rest “to keep us all in good spirits, well fed and comfortable.”
There was a jar where passengers could place donations to help the injured crewman who was in serious condition, she said.
Ricafrente said that no distress call was received and that there would be an investigation.
A Philippine coast guard vessel approached the Azamara Quest, but the ship’s captain sent an email to the coast guard saying that it needed no assistance and that everything was “under control.”
Engineers on Saturday morning restored electricity in the ship to re-establish air conditioning, running water, plumbing, refrigeration and food preparation, the company said.
The ship’s senior physician, Oliver Gilles, said the crew member who was in serious condition had suffered “prolonged heat and smoke exposure.”
A month after 32 people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western coast of Italy, a fire on the Costra Allegra left that ship without power and adrift in waters known to be prowled by pirates in the Indian Ocean for three days.
Both Costa ships are part of Costa Crociere, SpA, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise operator.
Cambridge police on Friday arrested two people ahead of a speech by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief whose career collapsed after he was charged with sexual assault.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary spokeswoman Sarah Redman said a man and a woman, both in their early 20s, were arrested on suspicion of vandalizing the university’s debating society building with messages critical of the 62-year-old French politician.
The Cambridge News website displayed photos showing the walls of The Cambridge Union Society defaced with messages including “DSK GO AWAY” and “WOMEN DESERVE BETTER.”
Strauss-Kahn was scheduled to speak at the society later Friday despite protesters’ calls for the event to be canceled.
Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the IMF after allegations last May that he sexually assaulted New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo. Prosecutors later dropped criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn, but Diallo has brought a civil case against him.
Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, was scheduled to speak on Diallo’s behalf at a rival event Friday.
A statement posted Friday on the debating union’s website states that the invitation was made before Strauss-Kahn’s controversial departure from the IMF.
Nigerian oil union Pengassan said it will only shut down oil output as
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Fairview Heights-based Impact Strategies Inc., a construction-management company, has started Phase I of a $4 million renovation project at the Granite City office of Chestnut Health Systems.
The project will double the size of the office at 50 Northgate Industrial Drive to 70,000 square feet. Renovations are being made to two current buildings to connect them, while enabling the owner to maintain daily operations and regular hours of business. The architect is Gray Design payday loans lenders.
Upon completion in the spring, the new facility will accommodate Chestnut Health Systems’ expanded service lines, including pharmacy, crisis residential, counseling, case management and chemical dependency services.
Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying Monday after an Australian court intervened in a labor dispute that led the airline to ground its entire fleet over the weekend.
By the time the labor-relations court acted, several hundred flights had been canceled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.
Some airline industry experts say Qantas’ surprise grounding of its entire fleet Saturday could cause many travelers to book future trips on other airlines.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he had no choice but to order the lockout of union workers and end months of rolling strikes that led to canceled flights, $70 million in losses and a collapse in future bookings.
Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he expected some flights to resume by mid-afternoon Monday. It was unclear how long it would take for the airline to resume a full schedule. The airline had estimated that it would lose $20 million a day during the lockout.
The Australian labor-relations court issued its ruling ending the standoff early Monday morning _ midday Sunday in the United States _ after holding an emergency hearing that included testimony from company, labor union and government officials.
The president of the labor-arbitration panel, Geoffrey Giudice, said the group acted to protect Australia’s tourism and aviation industry.
The airline said 447 flights had been canceled in the first 24 hours of the lockout. Qantas did not immediately update that figure.
Qantas is the largest of Australia’s four national domestic airlines, carrying about 70,000 passengers a day on a fleet of 108 planes that operate in 22 countries. In 2010, it was the 16th largest airline in the world by passenger miles flown, according to the trade publication Air Transport World.
Its major international destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong and London. In the United States, Qantas flies to Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and Honolulu.
Travelers reported being ordered to leave planes that were already on the tarmac when the lockout began Saturday. More than 60 planes in mid-flight flew to their destinations, then were parked.
Qantas said it paid to rebook passengers on other airlines, including compensating those who had to pay higher last-minute fares to get home.
For several weeks, workers have carried out rolling strikes and refused to work overtime to demand higher pay and protest the airline’s plans to cut about 1,000 jobs. Qantas, which has about 32,500 employees, wants to reduce costs by creating new Asia-based airlines for international flying. International flights were a roughly $200 million drain on the company last year.
The company reported in August that annual profit had doubled. But it said the business climate was too turbulent _ partly because of labor turmoil _ to forecast future earnings.
Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst in San Francisco, predicts the shutdown will do long-term damage to the Qantas name by hurting its reputation for reliability.
“A lot of travelers won’t take a chance and will book away to Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and other airlines,” Harteveldt said. “Brand loyalty in the airline business is very low, and there is so much competition.”
Before the court ruling, Virgin Australia said it was scheduling extra flights and offering 20 percent fare discounts to help stranded Qantas passengers through Thursday.
If Qantas loses customers, that could also hurt partners in its alliance of global airlines, including American Airlines. A rival alliance that includes Air New Zealand and is led by United Continental Holdings Inc. could benefit. So could a third group of airlines that includes several major Asian carriers and is led by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM.
Other industry veterans said the lockout was a daring move that will pay off for Qantas, which wants to expand the low-cost, low-fare model that it uses at its Jetstar Airways subsidiary.
Jetstar has extensive routes to Southeast Asia and Japan, and lower costs than Qantas. But Qantas unions fear that expansion of low-cost airlines will result in Australian jobs being sent overseas. CEO Joyce hopes to bend the unions closer to the company’s vision for growth by tapping into Asian markets.
“It was a very shrewd move by their CEO to force the issue and stop the potential deterioration of the brand,” said Mo Garfinkle, an airline consultant who has worked for Qantas rival Virgin Australia. “In the end, it will benefit Qantas financially.”
Garfinkle said the short duration of the fleet grounding will help Qantas get back up to full speed quickly, cutting its losses.